1/28/13 ** And I score...I said that it was a Printz contender and it received an honor. It's rare that I get at least one of my picks on the list!

1/1/13 ** I was so taken with this world that I immediately re-read the book! If you do any re-reading, this is well worth it. I picked up many hints in Verity's narrative in Part I that I missed the first time around.

12/30/12 ** Sad yes...worth reading? Absolutely! Just a hint: there are two parts. In the first part the narrator flashes back and describes parts of her current experience. Pay attention to the current experiences; I missed some things that I wanted to know about when I read Part II.

I'm not quite sure how to write a review without spoilers. As the jacket says, it is primarily about the friendship between two young women in wartime (WWII) England. This is not typically a description that appeals to me! A point that might capture other readers: suspense, action, danger. Also, intricate plotting, references to literature, nuanced characters that defy stereotypes.

In the past couple of years I've read several books set before and during the Second World War. This provided a completely different perspective - that of young women in "non-combat" roles that still provided lots of danger...flying, shuttling damaged planes from point to point, spying, tricking captured soldiers. I was reminded several times of jobs that we currently have women soldiers do that are non-combat arms!

Reading this made me want to go back and re-read Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal by Mal Peet - another book set among the resistance movement in France, or Code Talker, about the Navajo Marines in the Pacific Theater.